My escort

November 13, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

While doing the morning routine today, I had quite the escort, following me along!

During the night, we noticed (by the glowing light in the bathroom window!) that the cats had knocked the water bowl off the concrete block again. This set up might work for chickens, but not so much for cats. I was thinking it was time to take it out and figure something else out.

Until I looked through the window and saw The Outsider, sitting on the edge of the block, leaning over the warmth of the light!

Well, at least there’s that!

After putting food and water out for the cats, then topping up the deer feed and bird seed (I can see that the deer have been coming in during the night), I did my usual rounds.

I had quite the following, in the process!

We have two trees with crab apples still on them. One has larger apples, some of which you can see have basically exploded as they froze. I was able to shake a few down for the deer, but they’re very stubborn.

Beep Beep climbed up into the other tree with apples on it, so I didn’t try to shake that one. :-D

By the time I was half way through my rounds, I had Butterscotch, Rolando Moon, Beep Beep and Doom Guy following me along!

Beep Beep insisted on up, so I carried her for a while. When I needed two hands, though, I tried to put her down.

She would NOT go down.

Eventually, after several tries, I got her to go onto the top of a fence post.

There she stayed, until I was done and could pick her up again!

Too cute!

By then, Doom Guy was climbing up my leg, for for a while I had him on one shoulder, and her on the other.

Yeah. I’m a suck. :-D

The Re-Farmer

A Year Ago Today – moving day

November 13, 2018November 12, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

Today marks one year from when the movers came and we were officially out of the co-op we had been living in.

My daughter and I were exhausted, but thought we were near the end.

Oh, how wrong we were.

Things did not turn out at all like we expected.

What a disaster it was, on so many levels.

After all this time, I don’t even want to think about it. Of all my moves, this one is in a fight for the top spot for worse moves ever, in competition with a move during which we all got sick, and I literally collapsed from exhaustion and illness.

Yes, Mamacat. My sentiments, exactly.

The Re-Farmer

Hang in there!

November 13, 2018November 12, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

Just managed to catch a photo of a woodpecker that was hanging upside down, then off the side of the platform feeder.

The Re-Farmer

Looking back – a year ago today

November 12, 2018November 12, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

Well, here it is.

A year ago today was the last day of getting ready for the movers to arrive. My husband and younger daughter were already out here for several weeks. My older daughter and I spent those weeks continuing to purge and pack and get ready for the movers.

We were exhausted. In pain. Ready to drop.

cost-benefit-analysiscba-3-638 Thinking about the past year, I sat down and crunched some numbers. When we were deciding whether or not to accept my mother’s request to move out there, with her offer to pay for the movers, I sat down with our budget at the time, and tried to compare it with what we might expect to be paying out here. I thought I was erring on the side of caution as much as I reasonably could. Basically, we had to decide if the increased costs out here would be made up for by not paying over $1400 in housing charges. Living on a fixed income while expenses kept increasing meant we were slowly falling behind. Being overly cautious with the numbers, we felt we would be ahead of the game by about $450 a month.

Now, a year later, I can look at our actual expenses and compare.

Keep in mind, I am just looking at our regular budgeted expenses, since there’s no way to account for things like the hot water tank dying, or the van suddenly needing hundreds of dollars of work done on it.

In the end, we are ahead of the game by just over $320 a month.

Some things are not quite reflective of actual costs. For example, we are paying $20 a month more for our vehicle insurance and registration, but before the move we were only paying for the insurance; the registration was paid for annually, and we could shop around for private carriers. Here, there’s no choice. Just the public insurance company, and both are paid for together.

Then… there’s the rest.

Our electricity bill has tripled. In my previous comparison, I had expected it to quadruple. Still; painful. At least now we’re on an equalized payment plan, so starting this month, the payments will be the same, and we won’t be getting any more almost $600 electricity bills!

Before the move, our TV and internet were bundled. Out here, the only way to get internet was by satellite. It took a while, but with the new satellite the company has available, we now have internet speeds and reliability, as well as a data package, comparable to what we had in the city.

At triple the cost.

We also have to have a land line now, since we’re in a cell phone signal dead zone, so that is a completely new expense. With a long distance plan added to it, it ended up higher than I had worked it out to be when we first tried to do a comparison.

Our cell phones, on the other hand, are now combined in a bundle with one company, and that’s one bill that is actually lower by over $100. Our grocery budget has gone up by $400 (note that this includes not just food, but personal care items, household needs, pet supplies and bird/deer feed).

Our gas budget has stayed the same, but only because we ration our trips as much as we can. Our prescription budget had to go up, but our content insurance went down.

Now, normally this would mean that we’re ahead of the game. But when we start taking into account the things we need to do here, and how much it will cost, we’ve not actually gained anything financially by moving out here.

It’s a good thing finances were not the only reason we agreed to move. :-/

The Re-Farmer

Furry Visitors

November 12, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

We had a couple of deer come visit us yesterday, and this time, we had some feed waiting for them. :-)

They are just starting to get their thicker winter coats.

This one has lost his antlers fairly recently.

Mmmm. Tasty!

Butt kisser!

I stick my tongue out at thee!!

I am so happy the deer are coming by more often again. I love catching photos of them with silly faces! :-D

The Re-Farmer

The power of ice

November 12, 2018November 12, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

So, a little while ago, while at my computer, I heard a strange thump outside.

I thought the cats might have knocked something over, but when I looked into the sun room, all the kittens were on the bench, sitting up, and looking in the same direction the sound came from.

Then I saw it.

The rain barrel had fallen over.

Now, I’d emptied the rain barrel, but then we got a whole bunch of rain, immediately followed by freezing temperatures, so when the barrel froze over, I just left it. I couldn’t break through the ice, and it was too heavy to push over.

I found it fallen over into the garden, and managed to roll it to one side, so it wasn’t blocking the path in.

So why did it fall?

Check out the base.

As the water began freezing, deeper in the barrel, the ice prevented it from expanding out, or sideways. So it expanded the only direction it could. Down.

That base used to be level, with only about an inch or two of the blue plastic encased in the yellow ring.

Kinda shows how freezing water can burst pipes, split rocks and crumble highway surfaces!

The Re-Farmer

Cat water heater – follow up

November 12, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 7 Comments

Okay, so this is where we left off last night.

When I checked on it last night, however, I found that the aluminum foil did not prevent water from dripping down. After looking around for something that might work, I decided to commandeer one of the containers we have been using for the cat kibble. A heavy bottomed frying pan that the handle had broken off, long ago.

Some time during the night, however, it got knocked over. We could see the light glowing through the drainage holes in the terracotta pot through the bathroom window. When I went out to do their food and water in the morning, I found a small ice patch where the water had spilled.

I am guessing that, when it got to hardly any water left, the cats knocked it over while trying to reach it.

I decided to go with the concrete block.

I am hoping the weight of the block will make up for it resting on the edges of the light fixture. It seemed high, though, so I moved it closer to the kneeler, and put the pot and tin upside down near it, so the cats could sit on them, if the wished.

Which promptly got ignored. :-D

At least with the block, though, he can put his paws on the corners to stabilize himself.

When we checked it again, hours later, it had been knocked off again, but it was also completely dry. There was no new ice. Again, it seems that they knocked it over only when the water was almost gone.

So I’ve put it back, and filled it with more water than I had before.

As for the heat; it is clearly working, in that the water is kept from freezing, but neither the pot nor the block seemed to warm up at all on the sides. There is no radiant heat coming off. The heat of the bulb is enough to keep the water from freezing directly above, but not enough to fight off the cold on the sides. I had hoped it would provide at least a little bit of warmth that way, but it I’d probably have to go up to a 100 watt bulb to accomplish that, at which point I think it would be too hot at the base of the pan. That cats, at least, know how to use their own body heat to keep them warm! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Cat water heater – let’s see if this works!

November 11, 2018November 11, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

A set up to keep the cats’ water from freezing is now set up in the sun room.

We will know by tomorrow, if not tonight, if it will work.

Here is the set up.

First, the heat source: an incandescent light bulb.

This is what my brother had used under the kitchen sink, to keep the pipes from freezing while the house was empty. The first potential problem I saw was the fixture holding the bulb. While the opening in the concrete block I had would fit the bulb, no problem, the fixture looked too wide. So I had a terracotta plant pot as a back up.

There was already a 60 watt bulb in the fixture. The various instructions I’d read called for a maximum 40 watt bulb, but these were all on sites in US states that don’t get as cold as we do! So I kept the 60 watt bulb.

The plant pot is what I ended up using. The cement block was not stable. I could have removed the fixture, but it’s what was holding the bulb upright.

The narrower bottom (now top) of the pot meant I could not use any of the containers we are currently using for water. So I dug around in the Old Kitchen and found a cookie tin.

The tin is not completely water tight; there’s a slight drip at the seam. So I used aluminum foil around the base, which will also serve to stabilize it.

That left an issue of height. The cats were immediately curious (and Doom Guy was drinking the water in the tin as soon as I had it on the floor, before I put the foil on), and I could see that there were potential issues for them to reach the water if it gets low.

To solve that, I put the concrete block near it, for them to sit on. Between that and the kneeler, they should be able to reach the water.

The terracotta pot should absorb and radiate a gentle heat as well. I would not be surprised to find cats huddling up to it at some point.

For now, though, they are very curious about the whole set up, and even having fun playing around it!

Which means on of the things we have to watch out for is them knocking the water right off the pot. We’ll be keeping an eye on them!

The Re-Farmer

So that’s what’s under there.

November 11, 2018November 11, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

The outside cats have a number of places they use to keep warm, as winter creeps its way in. The kittens have basically moved into the sun room, and there is a path worn into the grass between the house, and the storage house, from little kitty paws. There is a gap they squeeze through to get into what used to be a full basement, but is now basically a crawlspace. There are other areas, both in the inner and outer yards, they use, but those two seem to be the most used areas.

The cat kibble we provide for them is pretty straightforward. No matter the temperature, they can eat the kibble.

Water is a different issue. It’s already freezing very quickly.

With that in mind, I did some research for what we can do to keep the water from freezing, and found some ideas that utilize cinder blocks or cookie tins and a light bulb. We’ve got plenty of cinder blocks around, though most are being used to prop things up, so when I did my rounds this morning, I went specifically looking for cinder blocks that I might be able to salvage.

I found other things, too.

A window at the back of the storage house had fallen out. Which means I could see inside – something I haven’t done since I used to play under there as a child.

Yes. In the photos below, you are seeing parts of my childhood. :-D

Continue reading →